Leave it to the Japanese to catch a rare megamouth shark. It’s only appropriate the the nation most scrutinized for its fishing (and whaling) practices — rightfully, I might add before the activists-in-wait attack — would accidentally snag such a specimen in their fishing nets. It’s unfortunate for all parties involved, really. We’re both in awe of the creature and excited by the opportunity to study it while also saddened by the (likely) untimely demise of a damn beautiful beast. Additionally, doesn’t the megamouth look like one of the slithery demons in Japan’s very own “Walt Disney” Miyazaki’s films?
Despite having its eponymous megamouth, this here ain’t no havoc-wreaking predator; the shark eats krill and other similar foods by filter feeding, sort of like whale sharks. They’re largely found in the western Pacific Ocean, from Northern Australia up to the Philippines, a region often discussed as the cradle of marine life with its expansive ecosystem resulting in an abundant diversity among its inhabitants. Unfortunately for them, evolution left the poor fellas with a flabby body that looks delicious to its more ferocious cousins — and its slow swimming speed definitely doesn’t help. Many of the ones that have been caught and, in turn, studied by us ambidextrous folk have divets or craters on its hind parts where bullies like the cookiecutter shark had a nibble or two.
This lovely lady — it was indeed a female — weighed in at 1,500 pounds, and the dissected remains are on display at the Marine Science Museum in Shizuoka, Japan, a coastal prefecture southwest of Tokyo and known for the disastrous Tokai Earthquake, which shakes the region every 100 or 150 years. Dubbed the “alien shark,” the Megachasma pelagios was given a very public autopsy in front of 1,500 people.
メガマウスの口内を捌いてます。 pic.twitter.com/ftRhuQWgtM
— 保存食@シカ (@Onnyou) May 6, 2014
There’s a whole lot more on the sea creatures written by our naturalist friends over at National Geographic. According to them, this is only the 55th sighting since a naval ship accidentally caught one off Oahu back in 1976. It has been quite the week for “rare” fish as earlier in the week a goblin shark was caught in the Gulf of Mexico. And encounters with oarfish are now a dime a dozen. There is always concern with these kinds of increased frequency as they typically are indicative are larger shifts, shifts that are the outcome of climate change. Call me crazy, but do you think we, good ol’ mankind, might have something to do with this?
